The present invention relates to a thermal heat pack for heating the female breast during post partum nursing and, more particularly, to a thermal heat pack which readily conforms to the contours of different sized female breasts to provide therapeutic heat to an adjacent breast to reduce swelling and irritation.
A number of cup shaped thermal heat packs are known in the prior art in which thermal heat is provided through a heat pack to provide a therapeutic heat to the human body. Examples of this type of heat pack are shown in U.S. Pat Nos. Re 14,024 of Whitmarsh, 2,298,361 of Freund, 3,500,832 of Nunnery, and 5,050,595 of Krafft. Moreover, U.S. Pat. No. 3,995,621 of Fletcher discloses a liquid cooled brassiere used with diagnostic mammography. Other brassiere patents in general are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,853,077 of Hunau and 3,430,632 of James. Heat packs in general are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,780,537 of Spencer and 4,846,176 of Golden. Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 3,897,821 of Lerner describes a swimming garment wherein breast shaped cups are formed from flat sheets having a V-shaped cut in the sheets.
These patents are incorporated by reference herein for teaching devices in which breast shaped cups are provided for therapeutic use or otherwise.
The above prior art devices have many disadvantages. Typically the devices include cup shaped portions which do not conform closely to various sizes of the breast. If the heat pack does not snugly fit the breast once in position, the heat pack may be too tight or too loose to optimize heating resulting in uneven application of heat to the breast.
The present invention overcomes the aforementioned disadvantages of the prior art by providing a radially bendable thermal heat pack unit. The present invention provides a thermal heat pack which is configured to conform to various sizes and the general shapes of the female breasts to which it is to be applied. Thus the present invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art by providing a thermal heat pack unit which conforms to the contour of various sizes and shapes of the female breast with a layered disk with equidistant wedge shaped webs to permit various sized rounded conical cups. Further, the present invention also provides another breast shaped heat pack which is formed from radially extending crescent shaped portions.
Although the Freund, Nunnery and Krafft prior art thermal pack units provide cup shaped heat packs, the prior art devices do not increase or decrease in size for various sized breasts. It is necessary to provide various sizes of specific heat packs to include the wide range of female breast sizes. Consequently, it would be required to have different heat packs for different sizes per breast.
The present invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art and provides a simple, pliable, light weight thermal heat pack which readily conforms to the contours of any sized female breast to provide therapeutic heat to the adjacent breast areas.